Thats it. I'm getting me a girlfriend & bringing her here. Ko Samui is excellent. It's beautiful & so relaxing. It's quite a 'couple' place, so sometimes it feels quite wasted on us 3 straight lads. Walking down the beach at nighttime, with the whole place lit up by the moon just isn't the same when its us lads. (Ok, I made that sound a bit homoerotic in a 'Top Gun' sense). 

 

Anyhows, the weather is beautiful here, 34degrees during the day. Bit too hot between 12 - 3, so we make sure we're swimming then. Actually, we spend most of the day swimming. If we get a bit 'sun' concious, there's a pool right next to the beach under the shade of palm trees (which are everywhere). Nighttime is the perfect temperature for me, still very warm but not too hot, everyone wears shorts & sandals still. 

The beach is class, the water is actually warm from the moment you stick your toes in, perfectly clear too.

Even if ya decide to go into a bar at nighttime, it doesnt take away from the 'outdoors' feeling of the place. Most bars are actually a verranda literally on the beach, made of wood. It's quite relaxing playing pool barefoot, 15 feet from the sand, listening to the waves. Some of the bars on the beach are lit up at night, but it's done tastefully, moreso just to light up the trees & so on.

 

Yesterday was Jungle Trek day. We started off in a 4x4 being brought to the other side of the Island. The insect repellent worked a little bit. Then you get up on an elephants back (me & Mark got the seat, poor Emmet got the neck) & he brings you around a path through the jungle. Got a bit hairy every time he went up or down a steep path/bump/hole, especially for Emmet, who was clinging on for dear life. Next a guide brings you to a some waterfalls, which we went swimming in. There was 1 pool in particular that the guide was saying to go into, but there were all these webs in the way, about 15 feet wide stretching across the stream, with longlegged orange spiders on em, so there was no f**king way I was going through them. Anyway, further down we found a huge pool, which was good. Next the guide brings you to the mountain top, where you get good view of most of the island. Then back in the cabin, they feed you some 'real' Thai food. We were literally queueing up for the toilet about 2 hours later.

 

Last night, myself & Emmet went to a Muay Thai Boxing match. That was excellent, 7 fights altogether, of different weight divisions. Those guys were vicious bastards. Most fights lasted the 5 rounds & were judges on points, but there were 2 knockouts. Tee Hee.

 

7 March 2004

 

Last night was 'Full Moon Party' night. This was excellent. Its a party held every month on Ko Phangan Island, when as you've probably guessed, there's a full moon. I think everyone in Thailand was at this thing. Certainly every hooker, anyway. We started off getting driven to the other side of our island, to the pier. Then a speedboat took us to the island. That was good fun. 2 x 200hp engines on this baby, and about 30 people in it, drinking. We sat at the back to fully appreciate the power of this machine. Got a bit bumpy sometimes, some of the little Thai girls literally got thrown of their seats & onto the floor. Hee hee. the island itself was mobbed. Think a fraction of every nation was there. The beach was like Ibiza, speakers & lights everywhere. Just imagine a nightclub, full of scantily clad women, on the beach in the (full) moonlight. T'was an experience, alright. Then we went to a bar & watched Ireland kick Engerlands (no, thats not a mistake) ass in the rugby. 

Speedboat back, then another 'taxi' to our resort. The taxis here are either the back seat of a motorbike or a 4x4 thingy. The 4x4 thingy was full, so me & Sparky ended up standing on the rails at the back, clinging on for dear life, pissed drunk, as the lunatic driver sped around the island.

 

Bit of a storm brew up today. Fairly windy & started lashing rain this morning. The island lost electricity for a while too. Everyone on the beach ran for their bungalows. Of course, us Irish fools decided it'd be fun to go swimming in this, so sprinted down to the water. It was fun. Got thrown around like ragdolls in the water, then nearly drowned a couple of times. After that we decided to settle for swimming in the outdoor pool instead.

 

10 March 2004

 

Got ourselves a boat trip out to a Marine National Park on Monday. These are a bunch of 41 islands about 40 miles north of Koh Samui. There was about 20 of us altogether on this biggish boat, which looked like 'The Orca' out of Jaws. We first went to 'Ko Tao' which is where the book of 'The Beach' was based. This was literally a tiny beach in the middle of these islands (which are really mountains sticking out of the water). To get from the big boat to the beach, the 20 of us packed into this small boat with a lawnmower on the back. This was crazy, it was rocking all over the place, with water pouring in over the sides. Heading towards the beach in this thing, I fractionally understood how the poor guys felt in their Higgins boats on D-Day. Then you leap from this thing to the shore & hope your digital camera doesnt get wet.  We climbed up the mountain to a viewpoint of a lake on this island. Its a protected lake (no swimming or fishing), we could see these tropical looking fish in there. Was dying to jump in there.   

 

Next we went back to the boat & went on to another island to do some kayaking & snorkelling. Bit of a storm blew up on the way, though, so the small boat couldnt go all the way into shore. Had to jump in upto our necks (holding cameras etc over our heads) & wade in to shore. Some of the older folks just refused to do this & stayed behind. Unfortunately the weather got worse, so we couldnt kayak or snorkel. This island had a viewpoint to kill for though. Took nealy an hour to climb, & you could see the whole Marine park. Was definitely the best scenery I've ever seen. I took a videoclip that pans the area, but cant post it here unfortunately.

 

When it was time to go, the weather was too bad for the boat to come get us at the beach we got dropped at, so we went through the jungle to the other side of the island & got picked up there. Glad I'm somewhat young & fit, as it was tough enough. Some of the...eh... mature people weren't too happy about this jungle trek at all. 

 

The journey back to Koh Samui proved a bit 'choppy'. It took about 3 hours, & there was about 1 hour of this where we all thought we were screwed. The 20 of us were on the top deck & the waves were nearly as high as the boat, and spraying up all over us.  The boat nearly toppled over so many times. One time in particular, there was this crash from the bottom deck & we thought 'Thats it'. Not enough lifejackets for everyone, all of us clinging on to the railings, people puking up (1 poor little Asian woman filled 3 plastic bags), we were all pretty scared. Anyhows, we made it back obviously, glad to be on dry land again.

 

Myself & Emmet got ourselves a Thai massage the other night. This was quite an experience. The woman breaking me up was about 45, which means she probably has about 40 years expereince at this. She was kneeling on my back & twisting everything in all sorts of directions. There were quite a few audible cracks from my back & joints. It was good pain though.

 

The next night, myself & Emmet decided to get tattoos. Fake ones of course, there aint no-one sticking any needles into me in Thailand. I think the convincing factor was that the Thai girl was quite nice, so I was quite happy to give here 4euro to paint me with a toothpick.

 

Yesterday we left Koh Samui (sniff sniff) & are now on the island of Phuket. Fair bit of travelling yesterday. Ferry to the mainland, bus, back of a jeep, & a minivan all in the mix. At 1 point, the 3 of us were waiting at a 'station' (someones backyard) outside the town of Surat Thani. There were chickens all over the place. I was feeding this cock some of my crisps till Mark reminded me of the birdflu. There was an enclosure there full of scrawny, diseased looking chickens, & some guy in the middle of them, throwing them around the place. They looked like his special friends.